Why Should We Ask Questions?
同志社国際高等学校

２年

中

川由理佳

Why did you choose that exact seat among all other choices?
What do you think I’m going to talk about?
Why am I nervous?
Since I came on the stage, I already asked you three questions.
Right? And now, it’s four.

Recently, I discovered that I like asking questions, questioning things,

I once thought everyone’s mind was filled with question marks like me.
One day my friends told me that I tend to overthink things.
I believe that asking questions brings us various benefits.

Today, I want to share with all of you and convince each of you to be more
skeptical, to wonder and to question things more frequently.

I think there are countless advantages to questioning the world around us;
now I would like to explain two fundamental types of questions, which I feelare very important.

British cuisine tastes bad.
Japanese people love Sushi.
AI might takeover humans.

I assume all of you heard at least one of those widely accepted notions. But,
have you ever asked why or tried to figure out whether there’re the facts?

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高校生―Ｄ部門

I am inquisitive.

Let’s begin by addressing questions towards well-accepted facts or matters.
Questions about well-accepted matters are often related to vague topics, which
can’t be easily defined as right or wrong. Effects of newly invented medicine,is one example. We have no choice but to search for the information toexamine its reliability. Although, not every piece of information in the world istrue. We have to discern legitimate facts from a massive sea of information,
just like news. Fake news has become a huge issue because people often failto question whether news is authentic or not. Could you imagine if everyonequestioned every newspaper article or news program? On a similar note,
people tend to follow an authority’s opinion. This happens everywhere. InJapan, one example is the declining voter rate. Many people in Japan are nolonger willingly to become involved in politics. A great deal of people in Japan
have simply accepted the recent tax increase, without wondering why nor
高校生―Ｄ部門

questioning its aftermath.

I’m not saying that we should protest.

What I am saying is that I want to you, everyone, is that we are all sufferingbyfailing

toquestionchangesbyauthorities.

Well-accepted

doesn’tdemonstrate trustworthiness, it’s just a total of individual’s biased opinions.
Questions are crucial not to be swayed by the thoughts of the authorities, as
they can be fallacious sometimes.

Not to mention that we also make mistakes. However, questions towards
ourselves help us by avoid making naive solutions in life. We shouldn’t
underestimate this another major type of questions. It is not required to bephilosophical ones, like, “why do I exist?” or “do I have soul?” I think we all
could benefit by asking ourselves a humble ordinary questions like, “Howshould I spend my time this weekend?” and “Who should I spend my time
with?” Questions like these have great significance; these questions give us anopportunity to become more aware of our present situation or state of mind. I
would like to share a personal experience of how questioning one’s self helpedme.

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Lately, I am desperate to discover what I want to study at university. I often
ask myself few questions like, “What do I enjoy the most about studying?” or“Am I making enough efforts in academic studies?” Those questions keep
tumbling in my head. I have to question myself, otherwise I might become
unaware of my ability or I might make a choice I regret for years to come.
Hence, I have a need to clarify my standpoint. We all need to know what weare capable of in order to set reasonable goals. Realistic choices to build abetter future, you should definitely ask questions.

I would like to end my speech the same way I started it...

So, how was my speech?
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Did you find it interesting?

How do you feel about questions now?

Why don’t you start asking questions?

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